2. Phillip Dorsett
Another player that will need to step up and shine for New England in its Week 4 matchup against the Buffalo Bills on the road will be wide receiver Phillip Dorsett. Dorsett has enjoyed a solid start to his fifth season in the NFL and third with New England so far this year, serving primarily as the No. 3 wide receiver on the Patriots depth chart behind teammates Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon.
Entering Sunday afternoon’s game against the Bills at New Era Field in Buffalo, Dorsett is has tallied a total of 187 yards and three touchdowns on 13 total receptions. With an average of 14.4 yards per catch, Dorsett has a season-long reception of 58 yards this year.
Through three contests, Dorsett is already just 100 yards away from matching his season total of 290 receiving yards in 16 appearances for New England in 2018. He has already matched his career-high in receiving touchdowns, finishing with three a season ago, entering the fourth week of the regular season.
A week ago against the Jets, Dorsett recorded 53 receiving yards and one touchdown on a total of six catches in the victory. He averaged a total of 8.8 yards per catch in the game.
Dorsett is having a breakout year alongside Edelman, Gordon and company within an offensive unit led by future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady. That type of play will need to continue to maintain entering this weekend’s game against Buffalo.
It is especially important for Dorsett to step up if Edelman isn’t indeed able to play in the game, although Edelman did return to practice on Wednesday for New England. The veteran wide receiver Edelman left the Patriots’ Week 3 contest against the New York Jets last week with a chest injury that forced him to miss the second half of action at Gillette Stadium.
If Edelman isn’t able to go in the game on Sunday against the Bills, that means Dorsett and the rest of the wide receiving group will need to perform even better for the Patriots to come out on top once again.